Hosiery mender



' March 29, 1949; .c. E 5mm 2,465,403

HOSIERY MENDER Filed March @1947 2 Sheets-sheaf, 1

Fig, 5.

I nz'entar Charls E. Smith By m March 29,1949. c. E; SMITH 2,465,403

HOS IERY MENDER Filed March 7, 19'47 Y 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 3. "1 I6-J\ 22 24 28 I v f i IIIQ "*ENN'M 44 Inv entor Charles E. Smith Patented Mar. 29, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HOSIERY MENDER Charles E. Smith, Ottumwa, Iowa Application March 7, 1947, Serial No. 733,021

2 Claims.

This application refers generally to hosiery menders and more particularly to a hosiery mender comprising a motor adapted to actuate a mending needle, through the agency of a Bowden wire flexible connection, and a specially designed hand grip, allowing free movement of the mending needle.

It is well understood that mending needles have been used for mending hosiery in a manner comparable to the manner of using the mending needle described in this application, and this invention is concerned primarily with improvements and refinements in the means of mounting the needle within a hand grip and in operative association with a motor, whereby reciprocation of the needle is accomplished by the motor and the operator need only to guide the needle during the operation of mending hosiery and the like. It is to be understood that in this application the term hosiery will be thought of as including othermaterials of like structure.

It is a primary object of this invention to render the operation of mending hosiery simpler and less tiring for the operator.

It is another object of this invention to increase the rapidity with which a mending operation may be accomplished.

It is another object of this invention to improve the quality of work accomplished by hosiery menders, by virtue of the standardization or equalization of the successive movements of the And a last object to be specifically mentioned is to provide a device of this character which is relatively inexpensive and practicable to manufacture, extremely simple and convenient to use,

and which will give generally efficient and durable service.

With these and other objects definitely in view, this invention resides in certain novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts and portions as will be hereinafter described in detail and particularly set forth in the appended claims, reference. being had to the accompanying drawings which form a material part of this application, and in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of this invention, shown in operative relation with the environment wherewith the invention is to be 2 used, namely, a table, hosiery, a darning last and the hand of an. operator, portions of the structure being broken away and the underlying portions shown in section, to facilitate the illustration and to generally amplify the disclosure of this invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the hand grip, the needle and a fragmentary portion of a Bowden wire;

Figure 3 is an enlarged view of the motor, Bowden wire and the hand grip and needle, the view being largely in vertical longitudinal section with certain portions shown in elevation;

Figure 4 is a transverse vertical section, taken on the line 4-4 in Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a grouped view of what is hereinafter referred to as the second piston, together with the press-on ball and socket. joint, incorporated with the end of the piston;

Figure 6 is a transverse vertical sectional view, taken on the line 66 in Figure 3; and

Figure 7 is a grouped view, illustrating the three major portions of the hand grip, in perspective,

Similar characters of reference designate similar or identical parts and portions throughout the specification and throughout the several views of the drawings.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, which drawings represent one preferred embodiment of this invention, it will be noted that the environment wherewith this invention is designed to be used includes a table II], or other similar support, hosiery l2 and a mending last 14.

A motor, generally indicated by the numeral I6, which will normally be a small electric motor, is provided with a worm gear IS on the outer end of the drive shaft thereof and the casing of the motor is constructed with an extending portion 20 which may be bell shaped as illustrated in the drawings and a spiral gear 22 is mounted on a transversely disposed shaft 24 rotatively secured in the extending portion 20 of the casing in any suitable manner. An eccentric 26 is rigidly secured to the shaft 25 and adapted to reciprocatively actuatev the arm 28, this arm being provided with a bearing at One end to 00- act with the eccentric 26 and being bifurcated at the other end to receive. the end of the piston 30'. The piston 30 is secured to the arm by the pivot pin 32 which is secured to the suitably apertured end of the piston 30 and the similarly apertured bifurcated portion of the arm 28.

The piston 30 is mounted to reciprocate within a slide hearing which comprises a sleeve rigidly mounted within a tubular neck portion 36 extending in a, direction colinear with the longitudinal axis of the arm 28. The outer shield or sheath 38 of the Bowden wire 4!! is secured to the end of this neck portion 36 by a screw cap 42, the outer end of the neck portion 35 being suitably threaded to receive this cap 42 and being apertured to allow the insertion of the wire 40 into the outer end of the piston 30, an apertured washer 44 being preferably inserted between the end of the neck portion 38 and the inside surface of the screw cap 42, all as best illustrated in Figure 3.

The motor I6 is mounted by means of an attaching bracket 46, to the upper end of a tube 48 which is telescopically associated with another tube 50, to allow for the vertical adjustment of the motor, the lower end of the tube 50 being secured to a heavy base 52 of any suitable character, and a thumb screw 54 being provided on the tube 50 to allow the locking of the inner tube 48 within the said outer tube 50, the adjustability of the height of the motor 16 having been found to be an important element in adapting this invention for convenient operation.

The hand grip, generally indicated by the numeral 56, is comprised of three main portions, a tubular body portion 58 which is provided with two reduced portions at either end, a sheath receiving cap 60 and a nose cap 62. The sheath receiving cap is longitudinally apertured to receive one end of the sheath 38 and is threaded to screw onto the end of the body portion 58. The nose cap 62 is similarly threaded for attachment to the body portion 58 and is drilled to receive the forward end of the second piston 64. It will be noted that the said second piston is provided with a longitudinally disposed key 65 and that the nose cap 62 is correspondingly slotted to receive this elongated key 66, this construction being provided to allow reciprocation of the piston 64 but to prevent rotation of the piston relative to the nose cap 62 and the body portion 58. The piston 64 carries a needle 68 which has a bifurcated thread engaging end 10, one furcation being shorter than the other, the shorter furcation being offset from the longitudinal axis of the needle and both furcations bein rigid and integral with said needle. The purpose of this provision will be obvious when it is considered that the needle 68 must be retained in a carefully predetermined relation to the threads of the hosiery l2, that is, the bifurcated end 10 of the needle must be disposed so that the thread to be engaged thereby is positioned transversely of the bifurcations.

In this connection, it will be noted that the needle 68 is made readily removable from the piston 64 by means of a set screw 72, threadedly mounted on the piston 64, to register with an axial aperture provided therein for the insertion of the end of the needle 68. The other end of the piston 64 is provided with a ball 14 which is adapted to be pressed into the socket 16 on one end of the attachment member 18 which is used to secure one end of the Bowden wire 40 to the piston 64, in a manner allowing the piston 54 to be rotated relative to the Bowden wire.

The method of operation of this invention will be clear from a consideration of the foregoing description of the mechanical details thereof, taken in connection with the above recitation of the objects sought to be achieved by this invention but, in recapitulation, it may be noted that the weighted base 52 will be placed on a table or other support and the motor IE will be adjusted, by means of the wing headed thumb 4 screw 54, to a height slightly above the level of the surface whereon the hosiery is supported. The Bowden wire will be preferably allowed to retain a substantially linear form and the hand grip 56 manipulated as required to properly move the needle 68.

Many and various useful modifications of this invention may be resorted to, all within the scope and spirit thereof, such modifications including changes in the exact form and proportions of the various elements, and though there has been described a particular embodiment of this invention, this application is not limited to this particular embodiment, but it is desired to include in the scope of this invention the construction, combination and arrangement of parts and portions substantially as set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a hosiery mender, a motor having a drive shaft, a worm gear on said drive shaft, a casing for said motor having a portion extending over said worm gear, a pinion rotatably mounted on said extending portion and in operative engagement with said worm gear, an eccentric operated by said pinion, said extending portion having a neck ortion with a slide bearing therein, a piston mounted in said slide bearing and connected with said eccentric, a Bowden wire having a sheath connected to said neck portion and a wire member connected to said piston, and a needle operatively connected with said Bowden wire.

2. In a hosiery mender, a motor having a drive shaft, a worm gear on said drive shaft, a casing for said motor having a portion extending over said worm gear, a pinion rotatably mounted on said extending portion and in operative engagement with said worm gear, an eccentric operated by said pinion, said extending portion having a. neck portion with a slide bearing therein, a piston mounted in said slide bearing and connected with said eccentric, a Bowden wire having a sheath connected to said neck portion, a hand grip having a hollow cylindrical body portion, a sheath receiving cap threaded onto one end of the body portion, one end of the sheath being spread and clamped between adjacent portions of said cap and said body portion, a second piston mounted in said body portion, a nose cap threaded onto the other end of said body portion, an elongated key incorporated with said second piston, said nose cap having a slot to receive said key, one end of the wire member having a socket connected thereto, a ball on the inner end of said piston and pressed into said socket, and a needle removably secured to the outer end of said second piston.

CHARLES E. SMITH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the tile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,708,675 Leavin et a1 Apr. 9, 1929 1,745,462 Van Dyke Feb. 4, 1930 1,856,605 Walker May 3, 1932 1,867,579 Mandelick- July 19, 1932 2,048,903 Vitoux July 28, 1936 2,390,329 Runcie et a1. Dec. 4, 1945 

